


Desiderium

by sacred_toast



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: No shipping here, kinda dark but not, where some people have wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 06:21:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23966815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sacred_toast/pseuds/sacred_toast
Summary: Desiderium - an ardent desire or longing; especially: a feeling of loss or grief for something lost.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 59





	Desiderium

**Author's Note:**

> Just a warning, this fic contains character death and depressing themes, so if that’s not for you then don’t read. Also, I wrote this inspired by the online personas of the people involved and not on who I think them to be as real people. Last warning, I’m not too good at writing and this is the first story I’ve ever finished in my life so I’m sorry if it’s not that good.

Schlatt loved the feel of it. The way the wind brushed against his face as he glided through the air. Not to mention the satisfying feeling of finding a pocket of warm air that seems to cradle you and push you to faster speeds. And to say he was proud of his towering wings would be an understatement. They were perfect for the businessman he was, always a statement of power and intimidation. All it took was a slight spreading of the feathered beauts and his non winged counterparts would often accept the offer at the table. To Schlatt, they were everything. They made him, him.

But the humans got jealous, or as Schlatt would believe it, frightened. It didn’t take long before flying was outlawed, when wings made you a target. At first, Schlatt would continue on as if nothing was different. He’d continue his life, his business, his meetings. However, his wings no longer intimidated his associates, instead, they seemed to anger them. All it took was one mistaken gesture out of Schlatt to have the police issuing him a warning. So from there on out, he didn’t flaunt his wings, as magnificent as he thought them to be. He made them as ordinary as a pair of wings on your back could be.

As the days moved by, the riots increased. Less and less winged people were seen in public, probably because of the looming threat of being separated from a crowd and beaten to death. The number of employed winged people dropped as the humans stopped hiring them. Owning his own business Schlatt was still guaranteed a job, but nobody looked at him like they used to. Slowly the number of humans willing to invest or partner with him dwindled to none. The failure of the business he built from the ground up didn’t drive him to break the law. Schlatt could handle that, even if it did hurt a little. A lot. What he couldn’t handle was the murder of his closest business partner, his closest friend.

Schlatt and Connor had been inseparable throughout childhood. They went to the same university, studied the same major, graduated together. Starting a business together had been the monumental moment that bound their adult lives, not that they minded seeing each other every day. Connor wasn’t like Schlatt. He didn’t rely on intimidation and smooth talking. And he most definitely could never match what Schlatt had going on in the confidence department. Being the respectful one didn’t save his life. Connor didn’t make mistakes, he planned every move he made before he made it. Though he hadn’t planned for a simple walk home from the store to be a problem. Maybe it was a miscalculation, maybe he simply didn’t care anymore. I mean, what was there to his life now that he had no job, no money, no purpose. Regardless, Connor was stabbed over a misunderstanding, not that it really was one. Stretching a sore wing was common, it involved spreading the wings to relieve stiffness. To a few humans walking by though, it looked like he was going to fly. 

When Schlatt hadn’t heard from his best friend in a couple of days, he grew concerned. Everyday from there, he stayed holed up in his small, overpriced, apartment standing over the television in worry that he’d see his friend on the wrong end of the news. After a week and a half of worry and restless nights, an acquaintance of Schlatt reached out and told him the bad news. All he had left of his friend was a small golden coin, one his friend called a Schlattcoin. A gift from when they first started their company to boost Schlatt’s already too big ego. 

Schlatt visited his friend's grave twice a day. Connor wasn’t allowed a funeral in a human cemetery, so Schlatt had picked a spot for him deep in the woods where they used to play as kids. Buried him six feet underground. And delivered his friend's eulogy for no one to hear. He thought his friend would’ve appreciated it more anyways. Sometimes he’d bring flowers, not the professional bundles the humans could so easily purchase, but flowers grown on his balcony. He’d tell him stories, little moments from their childhood that he thought about, moments from his day, how his family was doing, how Connor’s family was doing. Surprisingly with the amount of visits, Schaltt hadn’t run into his friends' family once. He would visit at different times for his first visit, but his second of the day was always when the sun was just starting to set. Schlatt remembered how he and Connor used to sit in the cool grass and make up constellations in the same clearing of the forest that his friend’s body now belonged to. Schlatt wasn’t one to cry, but when the sun set and he fell to his back to soak in the night sky, the first cluster of stars he saw was one Connor had named Ram’s Ass. A small choked sob escaped his lips, soon followed by an unstoppable dam burst that finally allowed Schlatt to release the tension of keeping it all to himself. Between sobs, he recanted to his friend how much he missed him, how life wasn’t the same, how empty he now feeled.

Then he found purpose again. On the way to one of his visits, Schlatt witnessed a gang of humans circling and taunting a small winged boy. He couldn’t have been no more than ten years of age. Schlatt stepped in, using his natural intimidation to scare off the gang. From there on out, Schlatt’s two room apartment became the home of two people, instead of one. The winged boy, Ty, became Schlatt’s new purpose to life. His mission. It took awhile to get the boy to talk to him, but through Schlatt’s persistence and chocolate bribes, the boy warmed up to the idea of trusting Schlatt. Eventually Ty had even mustered up the courage to explain to Schlatt why he was on the streets the day Schlatt had saved him.

Ty never lived a glamourous life. Even before the discrimination against winged people. His father worked in a mine and his mother slaved away in a bar working long hours for little pay. They did what they could to support him, though he was only able to eat once a day. He loved them regardless. They were a family. Then the discrimination started. He had only been seven, had just started school, when the other kids would start to bully him for something that was as much a part of him as his heart. He often got in trouble at school for trying to learn how to fly during recess. In the end, his parents pulled him from school. Not because of the bullies, or the trouble he got in. They just couldn’t afford it. Ty’s father was laid off early on, and his mother was harassed daily by drunks with nothing better to do. When Ty turned nine, his parents went out to buy a birthday cake, the ingredients now more expensive than the product. They never came back, and after three weeks of attempting to care for himself the landlord threw him out to the streets for him to fend for himself.

Schlatt told Connor about the boy. Much to Ty’s protest he still went out every day, but now only his nightly visit. He explained how he wasn’t going to let the child be another victim of the world. Honestly, he didn’t know how sane he’d be if he had to live with another death. So he raised Ty the best he knew how. It wasn’t perfect, but they were a family. Dysfunctional. However, still a family. After a couple months Ty asked where Schlatt went every night. So he took him to the gravesite. Maybe it was too soon. The boy burst into tears when he realized what he was looking at. Much to Schlatt’s surprise, the boy asked to come with the next night. And every night after, Connor had two visitors instead of the one. Ty would listen to every story, every memory, every bit of news that Schlatt told his friend, sometimes Schlatt would look over to see a tear rolling down the child’s face as Schlatt retold a now bittersweet memory. On the eightieth day Ty tagged along, Schlatt enthralled the child and his friend with the memory of when he and Connor flew for the first time. It was then that Schlatt decided it was time to teach the boy to fly.

There was a canyon, deep into the forest, where Schlatt and Connor used to race. Being the taller of the two, and having the larger wingspan, Schlatt always won. Well, before Connor started to play dirty. It only made sense to Schlatt, that the canyon would be the perfect place to teach Ty flight. It was outlawed, but he had no reason to believe any humans knew of the existence of the canyon. Plus, he only took Ty out to the canyon after his late night visits to Connor, so it wasn’t like they’d be easy to spot. The child was a quick learner, and though his wings weren’t fully developed he had no problem gliding through the air with ease. Flying alongside Ty in the canyon, he finally felt alive again. Schlatt could finally be himself again.

Ty was nineteen when they learned of a refuge for people like them. Schlatt didn’t believe it at first. The humans were growing smarter in their tactics, luring the winged population towards places that were rumoured to be “safe”. Then, they’d strike. He wasn’t convinced of the safety of the refuge until months passed and Schlatt hadn’t seen anything in the news about the massacre of his people at the rumoured location of the safe haven. Schlatt had even contacted a human acquaintance of his, asking if the humans had set up any more locations to trick his people, only to find that the humans were no longer using this tactic as they felt there weren’t enough of the winged people left to warrant it. So, Schlatt gathered what little he and Ty owned and decided that the both of them were going to find the refuge. Ty was forced to carry the belongings in the case that things went wrong. And they did.

They started at Connor’s grave. It was hard for Schlatt to say goodbye, for the first time in years he felt a single tear slip down his cheek. Of course he explained why they were leaving, and knowing Connor he probably wouldn’t have been mad. But some part of Schlatt didn’t want to leave Connor with nothing, but as he took in the clearing that he had spent all too much time in, he realized that he wouldn’t be leaving him with nothing. Over the years, the flowers Schlatt had planted for Connor had multiplied and the gravesite no longer looked sad in the clearing. If Connor could’ve seen it he’d appreciate what their childhood hangout out spot had turned into. After many moments of silence Schlatt and Ty made their way to the canyon, their banter filling the quiet night. 

Unfortunately for them, waiting for them at the canyon were armed police and behind them Schlatt’s human acquaintance. It wasn’t the situation Schlatt had expected, but one he had planned for. Schlatt quickly tackled the two police allowing Ty the time to escape. Amidst the chaos, time seemed to slow for Ty as he heard a single gunshot and the soft thud of a body hit the ground, but he promised Schlatt he wouldn’t turn back. Still, he couldn’t leave his only family behind like this. Against Schlatt’s wishes he turned around and waited until the police left, rushing to Schlatt. He was still alive when Ty pulled him into his arms. Schlatt wanted to yell at him for ignoring his one promise, but as the life slowly ebbed from his body he could only bring himself to utter a goodbye, reassuring how grateful he was to have met Ty. When Ty released him from his embrace Schlatt’s body was limp, the life fully drained from his eyes.

It only seemed right to bury him next to his best friend with his Schlattcoin tucked in his pocket where he always kept it, and so he did just that. Ty, unlike Schlatt, was one to cry. He was barely able to follow through with Schlatt’s funeral, many of his words interrupted with an ugly sob. And at the end of the day, it was hard to leave his family behind. Yes, it now consisted of two dead people, one of which he never met. But they were still his family. So he made sure to say his goodbyes, and eventually managed to fly into the distance in search of the refuge. 

The overgrown clearing remained untouched and quiet for many years. No new flowers were planted and yet the flora grew like wildfire, slowly covering the graves, though the wooden stakes with names scrawled on poorly remained visible. The civilization that Schlatt and Connor grew up in, the city they loved to hate, the city that had killed them, crumbled without the people it despised. No one stepped foot near the city. Until someone did. Under the dim light of sunset, Ty landed in front of the graves, emotion welling inside him immediately. He had matured over the years, but he hadn’t forgotten his family. And as he fought back sobs he started to tell them everything he could think of. And for the first time in a long time, he was finally home.


End file.
